NIL Deals Can Get Black Athletes Paid And Restore Past Wrongs

“I’m overcharging ni**as for what they did to the Cold Crush. Pay us like you owe us for all the years that you hoed us. We can talk, but money talks, so talk mo’ bucks.”

When Jay-Z spit those bars in “Izzo (H.O.V.A.)”, he could easily have been addressing the compensation issue looming over college athletics. But with the Supreme Court’s decision and subsequent opportunity for athletes to be compensated through NIL deals (Name, Image, Likeness), college athletes should print those lines on a business card and distribute them at every NIL meeting.

Compensating college athletes had been a hotly debated and contested subject for decades. “Student-athletes” put in the time, effort, sacrifice, and sweat to compete for their school, only for the latter to reap the ultimate financial rewards. The NCAA, a 5013c non-profit organization, has always played the mafia boss in the Cosa Nostra-structured world of college sports where sweat equity earns dividends that are paid up the ladder to the NCAA.

And as the players and games improved, the ratings increased and those payments swelled.

The NCAA ruled over the system like a don. They were paid by media companies like CBS Sports, ESPN, and Turner Sports for the rights to their events.

In 2010, CBS/Turner and the NCAA agreed to a 14-year, $10.8 billion deal that would run through 2024. A few years after the ink dried, they agreed to an eight-year, $8.8 billion extension that would run through 2032. That extension, according to SB Nation, put the tournament’s annual TV value at over a billion dollars for the first time in March Madness history.

And the player’s cut?

Crickets.

Schools and conferences, especially those in the Power 5, reaped big benefits as well.

In December of 2020, ESPN and the SEC agreed on a ten-year, $3 billion contract that made ESPN the home of SEC football and men’s basketball starting in 2024. This means that ESPN will pay the conference $300 million annually, a six-fold increase from the annual $55 million CBS is paying them. When the deal begins, each school will be paid roughly $65 million per year.

The player’s cut?

Scholarships for some, the rewarding, no-cost feeling of pride of representing their school for others.

The Decision

On Monday, June 21st, 2021, that all changed when the Supreme Court ruled against the NCAA’s mafia-like structure. The Court ruled that the NCAA was violating antitrust law by placing limits on the education-related benefit that schools and universities can provide to athletes. This decision enabled schools to provide unlimited compensation as long as it was related in some way to their education.

“The NCAA is not above the law,” wrote Justice Brett Kavanaugh. “The NCAA couches its arguments for not paying student athletes in innocuous labels. But the labels cannot disguise the reality: The NCAA’s business model would be flatly illegal in almost any other industry in America.”

“Would be flatly illegal in almost any other industry in America” was a haymaker to the NCAA’s hopes of retaining financial control.

For college athletes, their time had come. They would finally have the opportunity to earn a living for the unpaid work they provided to their school.

It was a moment to genuflect to former college athletes like Ed O’Bannon, Jeremy Bloom, and Kain Colter. Men who challenged the system despite the cost.

Bloom was a star receiver for Colorado who was forced to quit football in 2003 so he could receive endorsements to pay for his training for the Olympics. The NCAA told him he violated amateurism status by accepting benefits, even though it was to help him represent his country in the Olympics. In 2014, Northwestern quarterback Kain Colter tried to unionize the university’s football team. O’Bannon was a star player for UCLA who, in 2009, sued the NCAA over NIL rights.

“It’s almost like a dictatorship,” said Colter about the NCAA. “We want someone who is going to be looking out for us.”

It was a victory for UCF kicker Donald De La Haye. In 2017, the NCAA caught wind of his growing YouTube Channel and gave him an ultimatum. Delete his channel and donate all of the money he made through it (which wasn’t much according to De La Haye) or keep his channel and forgo his college eligibility. In a gutwrenching decision, he chose the latter. Four years later, he has 3.4 million followers on YouTube and millions of dollars in the bank.

To top it off, he’s offered to help athletes navigate the confusing NIL landscape which is now in its infancy.

For too long college athletics was akin to a caste system where there was no room for advancement despite achievement.

Athletes did their duty on the field and on the court, only for their lives off of it to be controlled by the almighty NCAA.

But that all changed at midnight on July 1st, 2021 when the door finally opened to college athlete compensation.

Midnight Of July 1st, 2021

Antwan Owens, a defensive end for Jackson St., kicked things off by signing the first reported NIL deal with Black-owned hair care products company, 3 Kings Grooming. He was followed by Miami Hurricanes’ quarterback D’Eriq King, who signed a deal with The Wharf in Miami.

Hercy Miller, Master P.’s son, signed a $2 million deal before even stepping on a college campus. These deals are life-changing and help tip the scales a little more in the player’s favor.

“It’s incredible,” said Master P. to TMZ. “This is going to change the way college athletes want to stay in school.”

These are opportunities for young, Black athletes to finally get paid. To finally be compensated in a system that, in some cases, is designed to oppress their success.

It’s also a chance to help those around them.

King pledged to split his earnings with less fortunate teammates. Miller is hosting charitable events like backpack giveaways.

It’s a pathway to financial stability and success for current and future college athletes.

But what about those of the past?

Could you imagine what Larry Johnson and the national championship 1990-91 UNLV team could have done with NIL deals? What about the decades of great players produced by women’s basketball teams such as UConn and Tennessee? Imagine what the players of Phi Slamma Jamma could have done, especially internationally with Hakeem Olajuwon? Or how about the dominant Miami Hurricanes teams of the 90s?

And let’s not forget about the travesties inflicted upon the Fab Five and Reggie Bush.

The NCAA essentially erased the Fab Five from the record books after determining that Chris Webber and a few others accepted money from a booster. The school and Nike made a killing from what those five players alone did for the program and college basketball, yet they couldn’t even afford to buy the black Nikes they were wearing. Webber discussed the pain of seeing his college jersey being sold in a store yet he couldn’t even afford to buy it.

Bush, the 2005 Heisman trophy winner, was a football deity for the USC Trojans. He was a back-to-back national champion who ran through, around, and past every team he faced in his three-year career with the Trojans. Then in 2010, things came crashing down. The NCAA ruled that Bush received improper benefits while at USC. They stripped the school of wins, titles, placed them on probation, and snatched Bush’s Heisman, and dignity, away from him.

Mind you, nothing happened to coach Pete Carroll in the investigation despite his program being charged with “a lack of institutional control.” Carrol simply bounced to the NFL to become the head coach of the Seahawks.

But Bush paid the price due to minor things like a free limo ride to the Heisman ceremony.

These are two of the biggest examples of the system’s bias, imbalance, and hypocrisy.

Institutions and corporations reaped the gains from what was basically free slave labor. Those in charge get off scot-free while those under them (the players) suffered the consequences. They didn’t cheat the system through PEDs or fixing a game for betting purposes. No. They were punished for receiving rightful compensation that helped them get through everyday life. It’s something they deserved. They did the work for their school and the NCAA. But the NCAA wanted it all so these players, especially Black players, paid the price for daring to challenge the system that poured money into their “non-profit” coffers.

But now that NIL deals are flowing, cracks are appearing in the fortress surrounding the NCAA.

Across the country, NIL deals are beginning to be signed into law. Alabama, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia have all signed bills into law as of 7/1/21. In Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Pennsylvania, schools can grant NIL rights immediately. Others are scheduled to go into effect at a later date, are pending or being introduced.

The NCAA’s interim policy enables NIL laws and activities to commence. But athletes are still bound by state law and current tax regulations. NIL does not impact an athlete’s scholarship, so they can continue to play on scholarship while they earn NIL income. But these deals can impact financial aid as that is income-based.

There are also restrictions on what athletes cannot endorse including firearms, tobacco, alcohol, or gambling. While there remains much to flush out, such as the impact of signing an agent to represent athletes in NIL deals now and using them if they continue on to the pros, this is a good start.

Time to Right Past Wrongs

It’s a shame that great athletes of the past, like Bush, had to suffer to get here. But with the adoption of NIL rules, his fight to reclaim his trophy is reinvigorated.

For Bush to get his Heisman trophy returned, the Heisman Trust stated “Should the NCAA reinstate Bush’s 2005 status, the Heisman Trust looks forward to welcoming him back to the Heisman family.”

Many, like ESPN’s Jay Bilas, are calling for restitution for players like Bush and those of the Fab Five.

“Hey NCAA: since you have now admitted that college athletes are professional, how about righting past wrongs and reinstating the records of Reggie Bush, the Fab Five, and countless others you mistreated over the phony concept of amateurism?” tweeted Bilas on Wednesday. “It was unfair then, and clearly so now.”

Those calls are just and righteous. Hopefully, they restore the dignity and crushed reputations of these players that were unfairly punished by an unjust system.

What will be most interesting to see is how the rules and laws change once more Black college athletes start to seriously reap the benefits of NIL deals. It’s not a far-fetched notion. Looks at what’s happening to Black women in sports right now.

As these athletes get paid for everything from appearances to being animal lovers, it will be interesting to see if the old habits of systemic racism appear and the powers-that-be attempt to step in and restrict their income and/or earnings rights and potential.

In the meantime, players should overcharge them for what they did to the Fab Five and Reggie Bush.